Nevada Media Alliance Managing Editor Alex Pompliano in Carson City, NV
Executive Summary
In the 2012-2013 school year, UNR visiting professor Michael
Marcotte managed the launch of a journalism collaboration between The Reynolds School and local media
partners: KNPB-TV, KUNR-FM and The Reno Gazette-Journal. The project was dubbed
“The Nevada Media Alliance.”
During its first semester in Spring 2013, the Alliance focused on coverage of the
Nevada State Legislature’s biennial session.
Marcotte’s independent study class was comprised of three
graduate and eight undergraduate students. The students produced nearly 90 stories
and blog posts for the project website, three TV packages for KNPB, 15 radio stories for KUNR,
and five print stories for the RGJ. Stories also
were carried statewide by various online outlets (e.g., Carson Now). The project included an active
social media component, particularly using Twitter, Storify, SoundCloud, Flickr and Facebook.
News about the Alliance appeared in student,
university
and alumni publications. When Alliance
stories were carried by professional print and television partners, the
partners credited the Alliance. On radio, the Alliance was mentioned
prominently during a spring pledge campaign.
Students in the project found the work challenging and
rewarding. An internal survey showed high marks for overall satisfaction with
the project, and generally positive though somewhat mixed opinions on various aspects
of the journalism produced.
Major challenges included a) finding editorial balance between
daily coverage and enterprise reporting, b) providing ongoing individualized
tutelage while using a distributed team model, and c) delivering consistently
high quality for radio, TV, print and online platforms through the active
involvement of the professional partners.
The project attracted outside funding (The Hearst Foundations, The Charles H. Stout Foundation and The E.L. Cord Foundation) which supported equipment
purchases, mileage, team events, web services and some personnel costs.
Arrangements were made to pay several students to sustain
coverage of the legislative session beyond the end of the spring semester.
Future content will evolve as other faculty and students
take over.
Actor Nicolas Cage in Carson City to testify in favor of Nevada film incentives
“Teaching Hospital Model” for Journalism
The Nevada Media Alliance (NVMA) is a contemporary experiment
in journalism education. It sprang from the mind of Dean Al Stavitsky in
consultation with the UNR Reynolds School of Journalism (RSJ) faculty (particularly
those leading the school’s Center for Advanced Media Studies). It comes amidst nationwide
urgings for journalism school reforms. (i.e., Knight
Foundation, AEJMC, Nieman Lab,
and Poynter
Institute.) While these reforms take many approaches, one borrows from the
medical school model where M.D. residents begin their careers through intensive
hands-on training, delivering medical services under the supervision of attending
physicians. The comparison may be a stretch, but the idea is to move journalism
schools beyond the teaching of aspiring journalists and positioning those schools “as
the anchor-institutions involved in the production of community-relevant news
that will benefit the entire local news ecosystem.” (Anderson
et al, 2011).
The NVMA was not patterned after any other school’s
“teaching hospital” model, but it has characteristics in common with many.
Examples of others include
Mercer’s Center for
Collaborative Journalism, Florida
International University’s South Florida News Service, The WSU Murrow
College News Service, UT Austin’s
Reporting Texas, ASU’s multiple
projects, Montclair’s collaborative,
and the small but earnest Point
Park News Service.
How We Built the NVMA
Planning for the Nevada Media Alliance began during the fall
2102 semester. It was a concious intention to ground the effort in
public service media. Marcotte held exploratory meetings with KUNR and KNPB –
the public radio and TV stations based on the UNR campus. Later, the talks expanded
to include the Gannett-owned local newspaper, The Reno Gazette-Journal. All
the while, the Reynolds School faculty was kept apprised of the project to help
envision how it might seat itself in the curriculum.
Here is what was laid out as the original framework:
The Purpose of the Alliance.
To give RSJ students journalistic
experience, exposure and learning opportunities befitting their investment in a
quality education.
To help local professional
journalism thrive, by designing, implementing and demonstrating a successful
collaborative model.
To serve the information needs of
the broader community.
To provide opportunities for
applied research and creative production by faculty.
The Work of the Alliance
The alliance seeks to advance
multiplatform, in-depth reporting on topics in the public interest. The content
may change over time.
Spring 2013:
Coverage of the 2013 Nevada State
Legislature
Timely posts from the capitol
Enterprise features on vital issues,
individuals and developments
Multimedia presentations for
radio, television, web
Social media activities
Public engagement activities
Content will be published to http://nevadamediaalliance.org — an RSJ controlled portal from which
partners may “cherry pick” what serves their needs. Primary partners are
invited to work with RSJ editors in advance of publication, to customize
content for the partner’s use.
The quality control process includes:
careful recruitment of students, faculty oversight of all activities, editorial
review of all content, orientation/training for all core participants, and
ongoing monitoring/feedback for adjustments and improvements.
RSJ Student and Faculty Involvement
The RSJ will use a strategic
design that includes a project “inner core” and “outer core” to manage
involvement.
The inner core is comprised of an
independent study course fully devoted to the alliance, taught by Michael
Marcotte. Hopefully, it will include avid involvement by these Spring 2013 classes:
“Data Journalism,” taught by Alan Deutschman, and “Social Journalism,” taught
by Donica Mensing.
The outer core is any RSJ class or
activity or individual wishing to contribute to the project. For example:
students in reporting courses, RSJ’s Wolf Pack Week (TV newscast).
Partners
The alliance is open to all
partners who abide by the public service mission of the alliance. Given the start-up
nature of the activity, RSJ seeks 3 “primary partners.” These are partners who
share in the editorial planning of the project and gain early influence in the
project.
Primary Partners:
KNPB (Brent Boynton, News Director)
KUNR (Michael Haggerty, News
Director; Kate McGee, Reporter)
RGJ (Kelly Ann Scott, Senior
Editor)
“Passive partners” would be those
outlets who cherry pick from the website after publication.
Faculty advisors helped recruit students for the project
during the fall semester.
This flyer was posted on Reynolds School information kiosks:
Organizational Considerations
By December 2012, the independent study course had enrolled
eight undergraduate students, who would serve as multimedia reporters, and
three graduate students, who would serve as the editorial leadership. Marcotte’s
paid graduate assistant, Alex Pompliano, enrolled in the course and was
assigned the overarching role of “Managing Editor.” Grad students Jeri Chadwell
and Abbie Walker were anointed “Senior Editor” and “Social Media Editor,”
respectively. The undergraduate student reporters were Paul George, Stephanie
Glantz, Scot Jenkins, Molly Moser, Laney Olsen, Riley Snyder, Lindsay Toste,
and Natsha Vitale.
A wide range of structural, editorial and workflow matters
were worked out by the time the semester launched in late January 2013. The
legislative session began in early February 2013.
Here’s an abbreviated checklist of some organizational
considerations:
Mission & Values (communicated to students are
partners during orientation meetings)(see framework above)
Roles & Responsibilities (Assigning individual roles hammered out by Marcotte with
his editorial leadership team)
Orientation (school based meetings followed by a day long
field trip to Carson City that featured a panel of experienced correspondents)
Managing
Workflow
Scheduling (M-Th daily coverage by
dividing the eight undergrads into four teams of two each)(editors were
available daily)
Assignments (daily teams produced
daily stories while planning/producing larger enterprise packages; topics
negotiated with editors)
Editing (all work was edited by the
senior editor or the managing editor)
Partner Contact (email contact; a
daily email “daybook” from managing editor updated partners on the agenda;
partners were invited to all meetings)
Website
Domain
(purchased by the school as a stand alone WordPress site)
Design
(handled by managing editor)
Posting
(primarily handled by managing editor)
Site Aggregation/Curation (automated
for social media)
Social
Media
Accounts
(Twitter, Storify, Flickr, SoundCloud, Facebook – managed by social editor, all
linked to the primary site)
Procedures
(reporters given access to all accounts, monitored and reviewed by social
editor)
Equipment
Newsroom (RSJ lab with iMacs; Apps:
Hindenburg; Adobe Creative Suite; etc)
Field Kits (3 new kits – one
“radio-oriented,” two “video-oriented.” See detailed list below)
Sign-Out Process (used RSJ equipment
room storage and check-in/out)
Training (held a training day and
then on-the-fly training)
Carson
City (The Capitol)
Orientation (arranged through the
Nevada Press Association)
Bureau Office (arranged through the
Nevada Press Association)
Accreditation (arranged through the
Nevada Press Association)
Mileage
(individuals filed mileage forms for reimbursement at mid-point and end of the
semester)
Team
Management
Meetings (Editors met Monday
and Wednesday morning. All staff met Friday morning)
Communications (Email, phone, text
and shared Dropbox)
Evaluation (professional standards,
editors provided grading recommendations)
Contact List
Calendar
Dropbox/Sharing
Expenses (mostly mileage; some team
events included meals)
RSJ/UNR/Funder/Partner
Relations (We got help from J-school staff)
Daybook (Managing Editor’s daily update to all stakeholders)
Course
Assessment/Grading (grading rubric based on daily coverage, enterprise
coverage, TV package, blog post, profile piece, participation/performance)
What the NVMA Covered
Initially, the idea was to focus on depth stories in key beats:
education and health. However, during the orientation sessions with the Carson
City press corps – and because of some urgings by radio partner KUNR – the
project shifted into a daily coverage model. Each day, a pair of students would cover hearings or other goings-on in the capital. If students couldn’t get
to Carson City, they had the fallback option of covering sessions via legislative
feeds online and/or through follow-up interviews.
Some issues dominated the agenda and were tracked closely by
the student reporters. Examples included gay
marriage, guns
on campus, early
childhood education, taxes
on mining, sex
education, human
trafficking, online
poker and funding
for higher education.
One of the most unanticipated stories of the session
involved Las Vegas area Assemblyman Stephen Brooks, who was expelled
after a series of bizarre behavioral incidents, including a threat to harm the speaker of the assembly. Intense statewide media coverage on Brooks
proved a challenge to the Alliance because it strained the Alliance’s editorial
focus on issue-oriented coverage. The team used restraint and focused on how
Brooks’ behavior and expulsion affected the legislative process.
Coverage was often supplemented via social media accounts.
This works well in Nevada because both lawmakers and journalists in Carson City
are extremely active on Twitter under the hashtag #nvleg. This produced many useable elements for Storify
reports. For example, student Molly Moser and Stephanie Glantz teamed up on a
major economic forecast with Molly filing
for the NVMA site, and Stephanie providing
the Storify account.
Stories were posted daily, featuring photos, and shared via
social media. Stories were tagged for archiving on the site. Tags included “your education,”
“your health,”
“your taxes,”
“your rights,”
etc.
Profiles and enterprise stories were also emphasized –
particularly at the beginning of the semester when daily coverage was slow, and
at the end of the semester when larger issues had clearly emerged.
In the second half of the semester, the team began
experimenting with audio podcasts. Managing Editor Alex Pompliano would host weekly
chats with NVMA reporters to review highlights
of the week.
NVMA Managing Editor Alex Pompliano with faculty supervisor Michael Marcotte in explanatory video shown on Reno PBS station KNPB, an Alliance partner.
NVMA By the Numbers
As of May 20, 2013, the Nevada Media Alliance produced the
following stats:
Website: 80 web stories, 8 blog posts, 6500 views, 2000
visitors
KUNR: 15 radio stories
Sagebrush: 5 newspaper stories
KNPB: 3 TV packages
RGJ: 5 newspaper stories
Wolf Pack Week: 2 video segments
Other publications: Ely, Washoe GOP, EQ NV, Carson Now,
Fox11
Twitter: 210 tweets, 154 followers
Facebook: 83 likes
NVMA in the News
The Alliance received prominent attention in the UNR media.
In April, it was the top story on the university homepage thanks to this
article by Jill Stockton and the University news service.
Similarly, the NVMA was featured in an article in the UNR
alumni magazine, Silver & Blue. It was also the topic of a front page story by Megan Ortiz in The Nevada Sagebrush.
Challenges Faced
The NVMA revealed some challenges. Here are some of the more difficult ones.
- Daily coverage can inadvertently drive out enterprise
coverage. This dynamic was not a
surprise – Marcotte has 20 years of experience managing public radio newsrooms
where this is common challenge – but it was still difficult to do in a
controlled laboratory setting. The key is determined effort by editors and
reporters, setting interim deadlines for enterprise work, and rewarding or celebrating
successful enterprise work. - In a working newsroom model, it can be difficult
to slow down and provide individualized tutelage that might be expected of a
college course. The Alliance tried to control for this by a) targeting enrollment to
those seniors who have achieved technical and editorial sufficiency through
earlier coursework, b) providing group training on specific needs, such as how
to navigate the capitol, how to use new equipment, or how to package content
for a specific partner, and c) using the buddy-system so students can help each
other solve issues in situ. Overall,
the idea is to plunge in and learn by doing. This really works but it also
helps to retain enough capacity and elasticity in the model that students get
spot training when particular “learning moments” arise. - The professional partners play key roles in
bringing the students work up to consistently high levels of quality for radio,
TV, print or online platforms. This means partners cannot be passive recipients
of student work. The Alliance partners who got the most out of the content
arrangement were those who put the most effort into guiding the end result
toward their needs. - Students may say yes to a big project requiring
major commitment but they are still going to be unavailable at times due to classes,
work or other commitments. A project of this type is a great opportunity for
individual advancement, so it is fitting for the project to elicit a
significant commitment from each student., but the project must also remain
realistic about the limits inherent in student schedules. - Partners can change. Early in the semester,
radio partner KUNR lost both its news director and its only other radio
journalist to staff turnover. While the Alliance could have continued to file audio stories to
the station, the lack of a liaison made it impossible to plan daily coverage
and assure continuity of service.
“there is nothing in a textbook that teaches
confidence and troubleshooting… it is up to the student to be successful”— NVMA Reporter
Alliance reporters celebrate the end of the semester
Assessing the Alliance
From the very start, Marcotte emphasized the experimental
nature of the collaboration project. Every meeting included time for feedback
and assessment of “how are we doing?” “What might we do better?” In this sense,
every participant was invited to reflect on both individual and group progress –
and realize that changes or adjustments can be made at any time.
Another way this awareness was cultivated was by encouraging
all participants to share blog
entries that invited readers to go behind the scenes of the Alliance and get a
sense of what it was like. (See Molly Moser’s detailed example
of this, including “chasing down a legislator – in heels (never again)”)
A concerted attempt to assess the effectiveness of this
project was to ask questions of all participants – students, faculty and
partners – in an anonymous survey.
The survey was conducted at the mid-point of the semester –
so that adjustments might be made in the second half.
Here are some of the key findings:
Almost 90% of the participants (N=17) were “satisfied” or
“very satisfied” overall with the Nevada Media Alliance.
The same high percentage gave the project high marks for
“collegiality” among the participants in the partnership.
Meanwhile, 100% of the respondents said it was “appropriate”
or “very appropriate” for the Alliance to focus its coverage on the Nevada
State Legislature.
As for the overall quality of the journalism, responses were
mixed depending on the aspect of the journalism. The chart below shows the
highest median scores for “Fairness” (4.47), “Accuracy” (4.35) and “Story
Selection” (4.12). The lowest scores were still in positive territory for
“Writing” (4.00) and “Depth of Reporting” (3.71).
Here are some of the anonymous verbatim comments surfaced by
the survey:
“I think we have the daily stories down, but now we need to
start thinking about bigger topics and stories.”
“I think this has done a lot of really, really great things.
The greatest improvement to me would be to find a way to spin more
enterprise/digital. I wonder if covering beats might work better for the
future?”
“It might behoove the school to encourage younger students
to participate in this class as well. Pairing a freshman/sophomore with a
junior/senior can have multiple positive outcomes.”
“Without doubt, this is the most important class a
journalism student can take. Classrooms provide an excellent environment fo
developing writing skills, however there is nothing in a textbook that teaches
confidence and troubleshooting… it is up to the student to be successful.”
“I believe what we are doing is the start of something very
significant at RSJ (Reynolds School of Journalism).”
At the end of the semester, Marcotte solicited some “final
thoughts” from the partners. This expressive summary was provided by News
Director Brent Boynton of KNPB-TV:
From the standpoint of a media
partner, I offer several thoughts on this first semester:
- This
works! For a minimal investment of
time, I have enjoyed a series of good packages from the Nevada
Legislature—something that without the Alliance would have been out of my
reach.- Don’t be
afraid to ask for what you want and need.
Partners offer an important outlet to students and therefore can offer
significant input.- Allow
time to provide input at several points in a story’s development. More oversight is better. I think we’ve had our best results with TV
packages if I get involved in the story selection as well as approving the
story outline and a rough edit. In
practical terms, that has meant that packages develop along a roughly
three-week timeline.- Follow
up. The students have worked long
and hard to develop your story; they deserve your feedback, both positive and
negative. How can they make their next
story better?- Students
rock! Enjoy their enthusiasm and
gently direct it. You may be surprised
at the quality of reporting they can demonstrate—if you take the time to communicate
both your expectations and your trade secrets.- Everybody
gains. Where else could you get free
labor? Where else could the students get
professional guidance and critiques? Both the RSJ and the media partners should
maintain communication to keep this going.
Senior Editor Kelly Ann Scott of The Reno Gazette Journal was equally effusive. She shared these
comments:
I think this project is invaluable
and is a great asset to the students. I’ve found the content to be useful
and the students professional. I hope this continues in future semesters
because I think it’s so necessary, and Mike has done a hell of a job running
it.So, thank you… I’m happy to
continue our involvement in future – just tell me how. And, if there’s anything we can do
here to support you guys with this, let me know.
The Alliance was promoted on electronic displays around the RSJ building
What’s Ahead for the Nevada Media Alliance?
The Nevada legislative session continues into June, well
past the end of the school semester, so the immediate concern is in extending NVMA coverage of the session. To that end,
four students are being paid – two of them interns at partner newsrooms, and
two of them grad students based at the J-school. In this way, coverage
continues well into the summer.
Toward the end of the summer, graduate student Alex
Pompliano will begin readying the NVMA site for the fall semester when the
entire project takes on its next phase – as a curriculum based “News Studio”
course under Reynolds School professor Alan Deutschman. Deutschman has begun
thinking of the collaboration as tool for in-depth business coverage focusing on
Reno’s fast-changing economy.
The NVMA project will segue into another “News Studio”
course in the spring of 2014 under Reynolds School professor Donica Mensing.
Mensing has yet to declare its focus but is thinking of ways it might
experiment with emerging approaches to journalism.
For the time being, the “News Studio” approach,
semester-by-semester, allows the Alliance to try out different aims and
processes, under different leaders.
The long-range future of the Alliance is open to invention.
Some imagine it may grow into a permanent “Great Basin News Service,”
attracting long term financial support — and staffing — while serving the
region with specialty coverage. Those who advocate that permanent model also
wish to assure that faculty and students continue to innovate in the
collaborative space, semester by semester.
Natasha Vitale of the Nevada Media Alliance files front page story for the Reno Gazette-Journal.
A Final Thought
Our team spent a great deal of effort getting the Nevada Media Alliance up and running. One hopes that the next group of students and faculty supervisors will have an easier time of it now that the tracks have been laid and the machinery of the partnership has been put in motion.
Still it will be a managerial challenge running a newsroom in the real world, but may the lessons learned here, during the start-up phase, inform the next iteration of this worthwhile and engaging project.
Addenda
NVMA Equipment List
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NEVADA |
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EQUIPMENT.LIST |
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2013 |
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|
Quantity |
Price/Item |
Total |
Item |
||
|
1 |
659 |
659 |
Marantz PMD661 MKII |
||
|
6 |
20 |
120 |
SanDisk 16GB SDHC Memory Card Extreme Class 10 |
||
|
3 |
235 |
705 |
Audio-Technica AT8035 condenser shotgun |
||
|
3 |
200 |
600 |
Audio-Technica AT899 – Condenser Lavalier |
||
|
1 |
369 |
369 |
Samsung EX2 Digital Camera (White) |
||
|
1 |
19 |
19 |
Samsung |
||
|
3 |
1700 |
5100 |
Macbook Pro |
||
|
2 |
1995 |
3990 |
JVC GY-HM150U Compact Handheld 3-CCD Camcorder |
||
|
1 |
59 |
59 |
JVC BN-VF823 Lithium-Ion Battery Pack – 7.2V, |
||
|
3 |
100 |
300 |
Sony MDR-7506 Circumaural Closed-Back |
||
|
3 |
300 |
900 |
Final Cut Pro |
||
|
3 |
300 |
900 |
Hindenburg |
||
|
3 |
300 |
900 |
Adobe Creative Suite 6 Design Standard |
||
|
3 |
220 |
660 |
LaCie 1TB Rugged USB 3.0 Thunderbolt Series |
||
|
3 |
75 |
225 |
camera bag |
||
|
15506 |
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